News websites and social media accounts published a photo of four bound and kneeling soldiers, claiming that it was real and that it belonged to Israeli soldiers recently captured in the Gaza Strip. The websites accompanied the photo with the following description: “In pictures: Four Israeli soldiers in the hands of Palestinian resistance fighters in Khan Yunis.” 

    One source of the claim

    The accounts also described the photo as showing “four Israeli soldiers held captive by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.” 

    One source of the claim

    Kashif verified the image and found it to be fake and generated using artificial intelligence. The image contains several telltale signs, including: the weapon appears to have two barrels facing in opposite directions, one of the soldiers has an unnaturally large foot, and the soldiers’ hands appear to be blurred. 

    Signs that an image is generated by artificial intelligence

    Kashif’s team found that the same image had previously been circulated in October 2024, claiming to show the Lebanese Hezbollah’s Radwan unit capturing an entire group of Israeli occupation army officers and soldiers. 

    Old post of the image in October 2024

    As of the time of preparing this investigation, Hamas had not announced the recent capture of Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis. Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades, the movement’s military wing, announced on Tuesday, 24 June 2025, that it had carried out a complex ambush targeting an Israeli force in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. It confirmed that the force “suffered casualties.” 

    Kashif Israeli-Hebrew affairs team also examined official and well-known Hebrew media outlets and found that they did not mention any information about Hamas capturing Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army, however, acknowledged the killing of an officer and six soldiers, and the wounding of 16 others from the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, in an ambush in Khan Yunis.

    Sources of ClaimSources of Verification
    Al-Ittihad

    Press Public Post

    Malak Ahmed Saleh

    Hietim Yar

    Abdul Majeed Khalifa

    Ali Lahmr  

    Saeed Baryali

    Journalist 
    Signs that indicate that the image was generated by artificial intelligence:

    The old publication of the image by

    the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades

    , Al Jazeera

    Share.